Tom showing off the freckles on his nose. In cat terms, he's a redhead and in cats, the spots are called lentigo. They aren't cancerous, they are similar to freckles and they are caused by sun exposure and you will only see them on cats with orange genes: Gingers, tortoiseshell and calico coats. Because Tom is a male cat, he only has one colour, the colour genes are carried on the X-chromosome so calico and tortoiseshell cats are always female, unless you get a tortoiseshell male that's a genetic oddity and has XXY genes but these males are sterile and cannot breed.
First posted here on my blog in WeKu
